


Kings Never Die

by Gozzer



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Stephen Strange, Blood, Blood and Injury, Blood and Torture, Exhaustion, Hurt, Hurt Stephen Strange, Just not tagged - Freeform, M/M, Magic, Magic and Science, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Other characters are in the story, Technology, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:00:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22795945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gozzer/pseuds/Gozzer
Summary: Stephen Strange honestly thought he was smarter than most other people. He knew of course that a lot of people held knowledge over himself, but he was brilliant in his chosen fields. As a neurosurgeon and as a Master of the Mystic Arts. If only he could move past his ego to realize that there are others much stronger and smarter in certain areas.Strange gets taken captive and put through hell by being forced to use his magic for experiments.
Relationships: Christine Palmer & Stephen Strange, Peter Parker & Stephen Strange, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark & Stephen Strange, Stephen Strange & Wong, Tony Stark & Wong, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 11
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

It was supposed to be a run of the mill mission. Some kid that didn't realize what trouble he was actually bringing into the world. Stephen had said he could handle it on his own. He showed up, warded off the creature, and was about to head home when something blocked his magic. It was like hitting a brick wall. There was movement behind him that had him turning around only to have something slapped around his wrists. The device clamped down hard and coated his hands in a thick metal that had him shaking with pain. But he ignored it to try and see what was happening around him.

Several people surround him with mandala shields held up for protection. He didn't recognize any of them from the Order. A sort of nervousness swept over him at the stillness in which these people stood. Nobody moved as if waiting for someone to show up. Just as Stephen was about to comment on it someone did in fact show up. A tall woman walked towards him with a smirk on her face. Stephen was starting to regret not bringing the Cloak with him; this would have been a good time for it. 

"Hello, Doctor Strange." The woman came to a stop just in front of him.

"I'm gonna cut this short. What do you want?" Stephen didn't want to deal with whatever this was. He had a churning feeling that this wasn't going to end well.

"Oh, we'll have plenty of time to get into that." The woman brought out a syringe from her coat and tipped it towards him. "You'll be coming with us."

"Alright, I've had enough." He pulled all of his strength - both physical and magical - to the surface and forced the metal off his hands. The pieces fell to the ground as he struggled to pull out a golden whip. It was his best weapon and easiest for him to use. But the damn wall blocking his magic was making it increasingly harder to pull it out.

"You can't use your magic unless we say so." The woman before him whipped out the Crimson Bands to wrap around his limbs; forcing him immobile. "Let this be your first lesson."

"For Vishanti's sake." Stephen groaned in annoyance at the woman. "What is wrong with you people?"

"That's not the question you should be asking." Something cold pressed against the back of his neck lightly. Before he could open his mouth a burning pain slid down his back. He kept his mouth stubbornly shut and glared up at the woman. "You should be asking, what's wrong with _you_? Where did _you_ go wrong, Stephen?"

Another cold press to his neck then slicing down his back. He could feel blood seeping through his robes and trying to drip down his skin. Whatever was being used on him had gone under his clothes to cut him; leaving his robes fully intact. Stephen glared up at the woman without an ounce of pain on his face. Death and pain were close friends of his. He hadn't lived through thousands of deaths at the hands of Dormammu to be bothered by some cat scratches. This woman seemed to realize this, or something of the sort, because she held up her syringe again.

"Do you even know how to use one of those?" His bland annoyance earned him another, harsher, cut down his spine. But the woman merely smiled down at him and pressed the needle into the side of his neck.

"See you in the morning, Doctor." Liquid fire rushed through his veins from whatever she put into his blood stream. It felt like it was attacking not only his blood but the very magic embedded into his being. He tried to process what could cause such a thing, but darkness was creeping up on his vision.

"You really need to work on your bedside manner." Stephen had to have the last word even as his brain shut down. "It's abysmal."

Fire throughout his body greeted him when he woke up. His skin burned along with the feeling of his blood being boiled out of him. A gasp of pain escaped him before he could stop it. He cracked his eyes open to take in where he was and to see if anyone was with him. The plain concrete room was empty. He fully opened his eyes and tried to lift himself up. His arms shook with pain that overshadowed what was happening in his hands. Even just pushing himself up into a sitting position had him breathless. 

He took another look around the room to find himself on a single mattress on the ground. There was a sink and toilet in the corner but that was it. A single heavy door was in the middle of the front wall with a slot for a window. This was annoying. Thankfully he was still in his robes but they were stuck to his back with blood sadly. His cuts seemed to be healed over but that didn't make peeling the cloth away hurt any less. With that done, he decided to check how sturdy the room was and if he could escape. The walls were thick as was the door. It was going to take some strength to get out of here without his slingring. 

When he called forth his energy and magic the fire in his body flared up. It scorched him from inside out. The pain was enough to make him groan and drop back down to the mattress. Everything hurt. His nerves were raw and his skin and muscles burned. The very magic and energy in his soul was raging with a foreign fire. It fought him and kept him from reaching out to it. If he couldn't get rid of this plague then there was no way for him to escape. His magic was his only hope. But that hope was slightly dimmed with this new development. 

"You will learn eventually, Strange." The same female voice from the woman echoed in the room. Stephen looked up to the door then the corners of the room to find speakers in two of them; and cameras in all of them. "We own everything about you now. You are ours."

"Yeah, I'm gonna take a rain-check on that." He pushed himself to his feet even has his knees buckled. "I've got a lunch date." 

"That you will be missing, and every other date you have set up." A heavy lock clicked before the door was swinging open. Two men entered the room and started for Stephen. 

He fell into a defensive position as they came closer. Even without magic he knew quite a bit of martial arts and fighting. Which he would have used if the men didn't use the Crimson Bands on him. They wrapped around his arms and pressed them flush to his sides. He was pulled out of the room like a dog. A single band was around his throat like a leash and collar. It angered him to forced into this position. Down from a human being to a pet for someone's entertainment. 

The halls he was dragged through went by with little change in their design. He struggled against the bands but all it did was get him yanked forward harder. Finally when his knees were all scraped and bloody he was led into a room. It was open and spacious with equipment and technology tucked to the back. In the middle was almost a cage. It was made of glass or something of the like with wires and tubes connecting it to the stuff at the back of the room. The rest of the room was filled with targets and all sorts of weapons. 

"Nice of you to finally join us." The woman from before stepped out from behind a monitor. She walked towards Stephen where the men had him held. "This is where you'll be working."

"I'm not working for you." All he received from her was a nod. Then he was being shoved through a door into the cage. The bands disappeared from his body and left him alone in the massive glass prison. 

"Now, Strange, my name is Roxanne and you've been chosen to help merge magic and technology." The woman moved back to her screen to pick up something. It was a tablet. She came back to stand in front of the glass. "We're going to run a few tests first."

"Uh, no. I'm not being a part of this. Let me out of here." He refrained from yelling or getting angry at her. It was more than likely what she wanted. He crossed his arms over his chest and simply stared at her. She was just as tall as him if only an inch taller. 

"That was not an option." She didn't even look up from her tablet. Stephen peered down at the screen in a moment of weakness. On it were several programs and diagrams. Numbers crossed the screen and a few boxes popped up with progress bars. A single yes or no question sat in the middle of the screen. 'Start Project MAGIC_1118, YES OR NO?' 

"Jackson, his parameters." Roxanne hit 'YES' and started back for the hub. A man started to flip some switches before moving towards Stephen. 

"Right, we need you to conjure your magic as simply as you can. If you fail to do so, we will do it for you." A set of progress bars appeared on the curved glass in front of Stephen. He rolled his eyes and turned away from them. There was no way he was doing this. "Only when this top bar in completely green will you be allowed back to your room." 

"I already told you no. I'll have nothing to do with this silly game," Stephen said. He glared at Roxanne and the other people in the technology hub. 

"Failure to comply will result in injury," Jackson stated. 

Stephen went to roll his eyes again when the same cool touch from before hit his back. It pressed into his skin and slid down between his shoulders. The same cuts from earlier were forced open and deepened. Blood dripped down his skin. His robes stuck to his back and rubbed harshly on the open wounds. The reaction he gave them was an unamused raised eyebrow. 

The fire in his soul started to flare up. It swirled around his magic and stabbed through it; hooking claws into the warm energy. His eyes flashed to Roxanne then to the tablet she held. Her fingers spread over the screen to pull at something. With her movements the fire burst through his veins and scorched him from the inside out. It forced him down to his knees as he tried to curl as close to his chest as he could. That was where it hurt the most. There was a single moment of clarity where he glanced up to the glass. For the first time real fear started in his heart. The top progress bar had a little sliver of green at the end. 

|||

When Peter stepped through the Sanctum doors he knew something was wrong. His spidey-sense had flared last night but it disappeared as fast as is appeared and he had no idea what had caused it; until he reached Greenwich Village and the towering building that helped protect reality. The second he got to the door his skin started to crawl. Stepping into the foyer felt like he was walking into a trap or war-zone. It was completely silent; so eerily so that it ticked something in his very being. 

Every time he had visited the Sanctum there had some sort of noise. A song echoing softly throughout the building or the turning of pages in a book that Doctor Strange was undoubtedly reading. The building had always greeted him with warmth and soft rustling that he grew to associate with the wizard's personal energy connected to the building. It was welcoming. This stifling silence and empty cold foyer were grating on his nerves. Something so obviously, clearly wrong here. What is was though, he couldn't quite tell yet. He wasn't as in-tune with the very workings of the building as he tried to seem when Stranger tried to teach him just how to connect to the mystical dimensional energy that lived here. But he was going to have to try. 

With a deep breath to calm his fraying nerves, Peter closed the Sanctum door behind him. The thump it made echoed throughout the building. He stepped far enough into the foyer to see the hallways leading off to the rest of the first floor before stopping. It was best to figure out what he could before going any further if this really was a dangerous situation. Following the teachings of Strange he closed his eyes and cleared his mind of any bothering thoughts. It took him a few tries to reach into himself and find the energy that lived within him. That was the key to connecting with the Sanctum on a deeper level; surrendering oneself up to the force and judgement of the ancient building and its magic. 

When he got in touch with the energy he forced his body to relax. He had to be open for it to work ( _"Relax, Parker, or else its not going to work. The Sanctum won't accept you if you show you are unwilling. Allow it to help you along."_ ). Never having accomplished the task before he wasn't sure what he was going to feel when or if the building accepted him. This rushing, flowing, tsunami of sparking energy washing over his being and having its way with him was not it though. It wasn't comfortable per se, but it wasn't uncomfortable either. The energy seeped into his soul and wrapped around him like a blanket. He could feel it reading him and looking for something. Whether it found it or not couldn't be determined when it suddenly stopped. It just froze within his body. Whatever had caused it became clear to Peter as the warmth from Strange he had always felt was missing from the Sanctum's own energy. 

Without pulling his energy from the Sanctum's, he searched the building with his own means. His hearing was exceptional in most cases and when he focused on the winding halls he found what was missing. There wasn't a single heartbeat within the walls. No soft breathing or ruffling of clothes. The Sanctum was utterly empty of life; sentient or otherwise. Even when Strange was gone from the Sanctum Wong would be around to guard it. But now there was nothing to indicate that either of them had been there in at least twenty-four hours. 

For the first time since he convinced Wong and Strange to get phones he was relieved. His phone was out of his pocket faster than it ever had been before. He pulled up first Strange's number and hit call, but almost wasn't surprised when it rang out three times in a row. Wong's was next and it was picked just after the second ring. 

"Wong! What happened? Where are you guys? I'm at the Sanctum it feels wrong; my senses are going haywire over it. Did something happen to Doctor Stranger?" Even in his building fear the odd nickname slipped out. On the other end of the line he could hear pages being turned and the familiar flutter of the Cloak. 

"Strange is missing. He did not return to the Sanctum night before last after dealing with a demon." Wong sounded as he always did, but just the slightest bit more strained. Peter could understand. If Strange was missing then something terrible must have happened. It made his heart speed up in worry over the man. He had been coming to the Sanctum to hang out with the wizard since they defeated Thanos on Titan. Several months spent in the man's presence had Peter growing quite attached to him. At some point during the summer he had spent almost more time at the Sanctum with Strange than he did in Compound with Stark. Both of the men were like father figures to him and it terrified him to learn that one of them could be in danger. 

"Do you know where he was last? Check out the area for any signs of him? Any ideas on what could have happened?" Strange was the Sorcerer Supreme and most likely the strongest individual on Earth, if someone could capture him then that means everyone else could be in danger. Not to mention what this person or persons want from him. All of this was going to have Peter going in circles with worry. 

"He was down in Argentina. We have already gone through the area and found trace amounts of blood along with a large spike of energy dampening magic." Fear spiked sharply in Peter's heart. "There is no doubt that other sorcerers helped in capturing Strange."

"Is is safe for others to help look for him then?" There was no way Peter was going to allow anyone to hinder the process in getting Strange back. "If sorcerers helped then some of them could be part of the Order, right?" Strange had taken a full day to explain the workings of the Order and mystic arts to him when he had expressed interest in wanting to learn magic. He still had so much to learn about the world. 

"It is only myself and the other Sanctum Masters that are working on finding him. It was agreed that no one could be trusted," Wong said. It did little to relieve Peter but it helped. They were going to need more help if they were going to find Strange if the Masters haven't found in close to forty-eight hours. 

"We need more help. I can't do much on my own and not that I doubt you guys, but I just want him found as soon as possible. Can I tell Mr. Stark? He could help!" That was almost brilliant. Tony could provide almost infinity amounts of technology to help find Strange. Magic can only go so far in searching for a missing person. 

"Only Stark. We can't allow more people to know that reality is currently without its best protector." Wong's agreement had Peter relaxing a smidgen. 

They rushed through goodbyes before Peter was heading out of the Sanctum. It took several minutes to disentangle his energy from the building in order to leave the Sanctum comfortably. The Sanctum was hurting and left undefended. Peter vowed to come back as soon as possible to at least try and protect it. He had learned many things from Strange including several defensive spells, but he had yet to get the hang of portals. It left him having to use the human transportation route; so it was going to take longer than a couple hours. 

There wasn't anyone Peter wasn't thanking that Aunt May had allowed him to use the car today. He had gotten his license after Titan and on most weekends was allowed to use the car to go to the Compound or the Sanctum. It was faster to drive between the places and Queens. The time it took for him to get to the Compound was shorter than it had ever taken him in his haste. He left the car in the parking lot and raced for the glass doors. 

The Rouge Avengers had returned to the Compound after the fight in Wakanda but they were on thin ice with everyone in the world. Peter hardly ran into them other than Natasha Romanoff and Bucky Barnes. He didn't concern himself with the others when they obviously didn't want anything to do with him. It didn't bother him now. And moving through the common areas past them didn't hinder his race for Tony's lab. FRIDAY didn't say anything as she opened all the doors for him to keep his path unblocked. She had obviously informed Tony of his fast approach as the man was already facing the doors when Peter burst through. 

"Doctor Strange is missing." The stumble of rushed words didn't take the genius more than a few seconds to decode. Peter was close to pacing the floor but he forced himself to sit down on a stool next to Tony. "Wong said he's been gone since the night before last. He and a few other sorcerers haven't been able to locate him yet and I thought it would be a good idea to bring you in on this. I hope you don't mind helping us, I think Strange really needs our help." 

"Alright, alright, calm down kid." Tony put a hand on his shoulder to stop the jittering. Peter took a few deep breaths to calm himself down from his self induced panic. "Start from the beginning. I'm gonna need to know everything to help the wizards out." 

And like that, Peter was spilling all that he knew. It was a rather short story. There wasn't much any of them knew about the Sorcerer Supreme's disappearance. It was worrying. When he was finished, Tony hardly wasted time in getting a few programs set up to track for any anomalies around the world and coding something to search out for Strange's specific magic signature. Peter helped with setting of the older programs, but he had to stop Tony from working on the new one. There would be no way of tracking Strange without something to combine and code his magic signature into. 

Peter had called Wong again once they had gotten close to finishing the device. They needed to know where it was best to find a reading on Strange's magic before they could launch the device and program. It almost made Peter feel stupid at the obvious answer given. Strange's magic was best found at the Sanctum where it was entwined with the building. The only thing left for them to do in the lab was gather some supplies before they were off to the Sanctum.


	2. Chapter 2

The Sanctum welcomed Peter back with a nudge at his energy. He held the door open for Tony and the device he was carrying. It wasn't very large but it needed two hands to hold up. He led the genius over to a set of chairs next to the stairs to set down the device. It was put into a chair while Peter went back out to the car to get the rest of the supplies. When he came back Tony had the device lit up and glowing a soft blue. 

"Right, you know the wizard hideout better than I do." Tony took a step back from the device to turn to Peter. Who was setting up the harnessing rods around the foyer. "Pick out Gandalf's signal." 

"It's not hard to find. Move passed the base energy in the building and the portal energy into the next strongest around. You'll know when you come upon Doctor Stranger's." Peter moved up the stairs to put another rod in the artifacts room. It was the hub of the Sanctum. All energy centered in that room and flowed out from that point. Strange had explained it as the eye of the storm in a sense. The energy the artifacts gave off canceled out the overbearing energy of the seals around the building. It was the easiest place to get a reading from. 

"Found it!" Tony's call from downstairs had Peter joining him. He dropped down next to the man and peered at the blue screen on the device. Three energy wave lengths were on the screen with only the green one selected. That was Strange's alright. He had said that his very being had been muddled by the Time Stone from his continuous use of it. The very energy in his soul was stained green. 

"Can we move everything here?" Peter asked, not looking up from the device. It was humming and combining what little energy remained to be able to find Strange. "With Strange missing and Wong in Kamar-Taj, I'm the only one left to guard the Sanctum. Someone should be here at all times." 

"Don't the wizards have more to their group? Why isn't one of them here?" Tony tapped out a few things on the screen that made it beep. The little circle in the center of the device started to spin lazily. Peter looked over at Tony to gauge if he was joking or not. 

"Wong doesn't trust anyone in the Order at the moment. Not with one or more of them helping get Strange captured. It's not safe to let anyone into the Sanctum." He took a moment to make sure no one else was actually in the building. The Sanctum would have alerted him, but he liked to double check. This place wasn't exactly foolproof. Tony finally looked at Peter to decide if he was going to listen to him. And move his work into the magic infested building. 

"We're gonna need a big open room to work in. And keep everything quiet from the others. I don't need them trying to get into the workshops because they think I'm not there." Peter nodded at the request and moved through the Sanctum to find the best room.

|||

When Stephen was dragged back into the concrete room he was exhausted. His body was trembling from the forced magic and the several hours it took to fill up the progress bar. He had refused to partake in any of it. Even as they forced it out of him; he wouldn't grant them easy access. This was going to be a fight until he either escaped or they killed him. He would give them nothing. 

In the hours since he was brought back to his "room" somebody had forced food through the window in the door. Stephen barely glanced at it as he meditated on the mattress. His body was no longer burning but he was worn out. Both inside and out. Whatever they had done to him wasn't going away anytime soon as he could almost feel the heat still in his soul. It warped around his personal energy reserve. He was doing his best to get a proper feel of it to try and remove it from his body. 

For three days he was taken back and forth from his room and the cage. Each time Roxanne asked him to perform some basic magic and without fail she was forced to do it herself. Stephen would not help them. For each refusal he was given a lashing or two that he ignored. And each time he was forced to watch the top progress bar fill up he would cut off his fear at the sight. Fear would not help him. Even if these people were siphoning off his magic. He would stand tall against the fear and fight the fire twining with his energy. It was trying to mimic his energy so he would subconsciously accept it being there. So far he had yet to do so.

On the morning - if he was guessing right - of the fourth day, he was forced back into the cage. Only one single progress bar was on the glass with the tiniest sliver of green lighting it up. He ignored it in favor of watching Roxanne and the other scientists. They were doing something different from the days before. Roxanne was typing something out on her tablet while the others were connecting tubes and wires to a different set of computers. 

"We finished the calibration for your magic yesterday." Stephen didn't move as Roxanne stepped up to the glass. "The tests will finally begin in full. This is where the fun really begins." She tapped on something on the tablet that sent a warning over the glass. It blared at Stephen in large letters. He merely blinked at it and went back to watching the scientists. 

"You should work on how you present this stuff. It's not very compelling." He said, watching as one of the scientists plugged a tube into the side of a monitor. While he'd never admit it, he was somewhat curious as to what they were doing. 

"It is merely a precaution on your part. Best to stay away from the glass, Strange." He glanced back at the woman to find her turning away from him. While he obviously wasn't going to touch the glass, he wasn't going to sight idle. A shoe was toed off and he leaned down to pick it up. It was tossed at the glass. The entire cage lit up a bright orange as the shoe was charred beyond recognition. Oh yeah, he definitely wasn't touching the glass now. 

Nothing was said about his little test. He was tempted to throw his other shoe as hard as he could to see if he could even damage the glass, but he wasn't that stupid. Instead he turned back to the technology hub to watch them. Roxanne pressed a button on one of the machines that caused everything to flare to life. A few switches were flipped and a hum started coming from the cage. Stephen eyed it carefully and waited for something else to happen. 

"Now, Strange, the only thing we want from you today is a defensive spell." Roxanne pulled up the program on her tablet and placed her fingers on the screen. "This is harder for us to do for you, but it can be done." 

He raised an eyebrow at her in challenge. His answer had been clear from the start of this experiment. There was a nod from the woman and her fingers were moving over the screen. The same fire from the last four days was once again hijacking his magic. It pulled much harder this time though. Forced passed his lingering defenses to dig deep into his limited energy supply. A mimic of his energy blanketed the fire but he could see passed the screening to not accept it. It seemed to evolve as it tugged small bits of his defenses to the surface. The fire traveled and ripped through his body until it was festering in the cage alongside him. 

For the first time Stephen could see what this fire looked like. It was an odd golden color that almost matched that of the Mystic Arts if it wasn't vicious and wild in its movements. He watched it rage and burn over his skin to get as much magic as it could from him. Then it was branching out into the air and spreading into large shields around the cage. There were several beeps from outside the cage. He couldn't find it in himself to look at the hub as he fought his own magic. 

Hours upon hours of defensive magic went by in the cage. Stephen was pretty much pulled from the glass after his legs refused to hold his body up. His muscles were locked up and his brain was in a sort of fog. The last three or four hours had been a blur that he couldn't quite recall. This was the longest he'd been stuck in the cage and he just knew it was doing something to his energy. Like it was feeding off of him; draining him to nothing. 

The next day was much the same. He was put into the cage and forced into more defensive spells. Then Roxanne was saying that test was done and they were moving onto to something different. Stephen's brain was still a little foggy from the first real test. He hadn't been given the time to rest long enough to reorient himself. It left him slow on the uptake of the days and constantly tired. The next sort of testing they did didn't help him any. Instead of using a slingring, they used his body as the anchor for opening portals. So not only was his brain tired, his body was exhausted.

There was a moment that he couldn't escape in these days. In the back of his mind he was always searching out ways to make sure he wasn't stuck in a time loop. At the Sanctum he was always changing his schedule to avoid falling into a pattern. Here there was a strict regiment he was forced to follow. It was doing nothing for his waning mental health. While he could reason that he wasn't stuck in a time loop he somehow couldn't convince himself that he wasn't. The same repeated routine day in and day out. Wake up, possibly eat, get taken to the cage, have his magic pulled from him, back to his room, eat, sleep, then all over again. It was the exact same. Over and over again for days. He would do anything to escape this hellish loop. To escape the same thousands of deaths from the loop before. 

The fire in his soul was gone. 

The burning throughout his body was gone.

There was nothing left to fight.

Stephen stood in the middle of the cage with a whip in his hands. The once golden orange strand was now a shimmering golden green. It slammed into the glass towards a target outside of his cage; in time with a gun being fired. The bullet ripped through the target with the sound of his whip crack. He snorted at the lack of a bullseye. Whoever was shooting the gun had terrible aim. 

He voiced as much and only received a lashing to his back for the comment. It had him glaring at Roxanne in the center of the hub then hitting the glass again. His whip created a shower of sparks. They fluttered in the air for a moment before disappearing like they had never been there. He dropped the weapon out of existence and turned back to expansive weapon rack outside the cage. 

They had been at this for days. Integrating his magic with all of the weapons Roxanne had at her disposal. The technology they had finished awhile ago was being used in place of the starting computers. Stephen honestly didn't know if the new technology was helping in the process or hindering it. Only three weapons had been fully integrated. The melee weapons were the easiest considering all of his own preferred weaponry was melee; and the projectile ones were taking much longer. This was the first gun they were working on and had been for a day and a half already. He was entirely done with this process. 

"This would go faster if you stopped changing the weapons you want me to use," Stephen said. They wanted something different every hour. 

"Follow the guidelines, Mysterio." Ah, the name change. He was annoyed by the stupid nickname but every time he said something about it some kind of beating followed it. The name wasn't even good. And none of them called him by his actual name anymore. He could guess as to why they were doing it, but he also wasn't going to fall for the psychological trick either. He knew his name and they weren't going to make him know any different. 

"Again with that name. How unoriginal can you guys get? My actual name is more creative than that." There wasn't a pause between his words and the body shifting force hitting between his shoulder blades. It sent him stumbling for the glass. The bleeding cuts on his back stung along with the bruises littering the rest of his skin. He huffed and forced himself back up right before he fell against the glass. It was still ready to char him from the warning sign above the progress bar. 

"Shall we continue." It wasn't a question. Roxanne could very well still force him into magic even after his acceptance of the fire. It had been like a bargaining chip. He either accepted it or they would keep him on the same routine until his brain rotted away. The choice was easy to make after a while. 

The glass cage was still in affect. He was still placed in it at the start of every session. Then he was left alone for quite a few hours until Roxanne had use for him. The work on the weapons was halted in their need to find a more efficient way to go about it. His magic just wasn't combining to the weaponry like they had hoped. Not that he cared; he never much liked weapons. The only reason he was actually helping was to avoid being forced into another loop. It was a pretty effective threat. 

What they were planning on doing on this day, he honestly didn't know. He was pacing the cage and watching Roxanne out of the corner of his eye; she was buzzing around the hub. The sound of the door opening had him glancing over at it. A scientist that he recognized vaguely was being led into the room by Crimson Bands wrapped around his wrists. He came to stop in his pacing to watch as the man was placed in a chair beside the targets. The two sorcerer's holding the Bands stood off to the side to keep the scientist in place. 

There was a familiar hiss of his cage door being opened. He was grabbed by his arms and forced out of the glass into the technology hub. The spike of his magic energy when he got close made a weird green glow on the machines. 

"What's on the agenda for today? Boredom and torture?" He asked, eyeing the electrodes in Jackson's hands. They were placed on his temples and along his arms then his chest. He had lost his robes a while ago; they were replaced by simple pants and an open shirt. The electrodes stuck to his skin and gave him a slight shock when they were turned on. Then he was being led away from the hub to the front of the room where the scientist was still being held in the chair. Roxanne came up beside him with her tablet in her clutches. 

"This is Dr. Fredrick Nash." He narrowed his eyes as he looked between Roxanne and the man. "He was brought in on this project a couple of years ago. We found out yesterday that he was siphoning your magic for his own personal use." So? That was exactly what they were doing. Roxanne either didn't notice his expression or chose to ignore it as she pulled up her favorite program to the screen. Her fingers spread across the screen while she turned her gaze on him. "Kill him." 

There was a pause. He looked over at her then the tablet and back a few times. 

"Uh, no? I'm not killing anyone." He shook his head but forced himself remain in his spot instead of stepping away. Another pause went around the room. Then Roxanne was moving her fingers. Even with his acceptance of the foreign fire, she still had full control over it. It ripped through his body and made a weapon to be placed in his hands. His hands trembled as they moved without his input. He looked between his hands and Roxanne; she had never been able to move his body, only his magic. 

"Kill him, Mysterio." 

He pulled hard against the foreign movements. Everything in him was fighting against Roxanne's hold over his body. But even as he tried the saber in his hands was forced closer and closer to Dr. Nash. True, wild, fear was fluttering and fighting in his chest. He never wanted to kill another man again. Never wanted the blood of another's on his hands by his own violence. No matter what they had done to him. 

The saber moved ever closer to the man's chest. Roxanne wasn't even going to give him a quick death; she was going to make him draw it out. As the green blade sunk into Nash's chest a cry left his throat. Blood bubbled around the blade until it was pulled out; then it started gushing and soaking through the shirt. The saber was forced through the soft tissue of the man's stomach. Screams and cries echoed in the room as over and over again the blade was stuck into the man. Stephen could feel the blood droplets on his face and the splashes on his chest and hands. But his eyes were trained on the mutilated body sitting in the chair in front of him.

The thing with blood is that it washes away from skin but stains clothes. He had learned that well before he even became a doctor. But now he has learned that it stains more than just clothes. It will stain the entire existence of someone. Wipe away everything one once held dear to them. Wash away their colors until there is nothing left but the deep red stain. 


	3. Chapter 3

Blinking lights filled the once full room of Strange's study. Technology covered the once magical space. Peter could feel the Sanctum's discomfort to the invasion in his bones. It was built on magic ley-lines and filled to the brim from its very roots with magic. Now it had an infestation of technology. He had done his best to soothe the building and tell it that it wouldn't be forever. It still didn't like what they had done to its Master's study. 

The first few days was just them cleaning out the study then filling it with Tony's machines. Everyday after school Peter was at the Sanctum helping Tony. The man had taken to staying at the Sanctum in lieu of Peter himself. Most nights he would call May and say that he was staying at the Sanctum; she would worry but knew he was an adult. They had spent so long setting everything up and getting the technology working when Wong dropped by. 

"This isn't going to be enough." Peter looked up from the hologram sitting in front of him. He was currently working on a project Shuri had introduced him to. Wong was stepping into the study with a frown on his usually stoic face. 

"Why? Has something happened?" He was up on his feet and moving for the sorcerer just as he heard Tony jerk awake. It was currently Saturday morning; well, it was twelve-twenty. The man had passed out a few hours ago during a scan for Strange's magic signature. 

"No." Wong moved into the room and passed Peter. "We have only found one spell that could possibly help in finding Strange. On our own we could not find anything." He offered Tony a nod when he lifted his head from the desk. The same desk that Strange had spent hours upon hours teaching Peter how to read Sanskrit and Latin and every other language in the library. Peter had told Tony so many of the stories he had in this room. 

"Combine your magic with my tech, maybe?" Tony sat up and sipped from a long since gone cold cup of coffee. He grimaced but drank it anyway. There wasn't much in the way of wasting in the Sanctum. "It might help us find the Doc faster."

"Would that even work? I mean, tech and magic don't really mix most times. I've lost so many phones in here from the Sanctum taking them." Peter flopped down into his designated chair. It was a deep red and far too comfortable to be just a normal chair. "They're almost completely different spectrum's of the world."

"They are not as far apart as you believe." Wong stood in the middle of the room and surveyed the screens around him. "I could put the spell over the machines to follow the same guidances. But there is no guarantee that it will work." 

"Well, might as well try it, Beyonce. I hate to admit it, but we're not getting anywhere on technology alone," Tony said. he was slumped back in Strange's chair with his now empty cup. Peter watched as Wong put his hands face down to the ground and shoved down on the air. A circle of orange sparks spread out in the room and with a few finger motions symbols grew within it. It settled in the air above the technology then slowly lowered over the top of it. There were several screens blacked out and loud beeping until everything came back to life. 

"Now we hope that this will help find him." 

Two months. It's been two months since Strange went missing. He went missing in Mid-March and it's now the middle of May. Peter was going to graduate soon in the second week of June and he was terrified. There had been nothing in the search for Strange; nothing more than a single power surge all throughout the South America. They hadn't found anything to cause the disturbance and nothing linked it to Strange's energy. Peter was so worried about Strange that he had forgotten about school until MJ reminded him of senior trip.

The class had decided to tour Europe. He wanted nothing to do with it. Why would he leave New York or the Sanctum until Strange was found? His Doctor Dad was gone and he wasn't going to just drop searching for him for a stupid trip. Things had been partially explained to May to allow for him to stay most nights at the Sanctum with Tony. Who was pretty much living there with only going back to the Compound once or twice a day. Things weren't exactly falling into place for them. 

Peter had never been so stressed in his life. Wong and the other Masters had yet to find anyone in the Order who could have betrayed Strange and Peter and Tony were no closer to finding the Sorcerer Supreme. Probably the worst part was the fact that there had been a spike in mystical and dimensional threats since his disappearance. The Order had been working for days on end to contain rifts and soul plagues across the world. There was nothing to point to why all of this was happening until Peter had run across a single text in one book out of the thousands in the Sanctum libraries. 

He had been trying to find something to distract his mind from the upcoming finals and found himself in the east library. The book's cover was worn so far down that he couldn't read the title and most of the words were in a language he couldn't read. But a single page in the middle of the book was in old Latin. Most of it was about something of punches and taking them, but there was another line after that. 'Magic comes with a price and everyone has to pay their tab.' Well, it didn't say it exactly like that, but that's how he told it to Wong. The sorcerer had only nodded and left through a portal with the book. A few hours later and Peter was being taught the consequences of using magic and dimensional energy. It was terrify to say the least. 

The Masters of the Order had come to the agreement that these attacks were somehow connected to someone's tab. And all of that lead back to Strange. Whoever had the Sorcerer Supreme obviously had no idea what they were getting themselves into. 

"Peter! Wake up, kid, we got a hit!" Peter jerked awake and slipped off the table he had fall asleep on. He was up and running for the study the second Tony's words registered to him. When he slid into the study Tony was already calling Wong. 

"Where? The hit, where is it?" He went for the giant hologram of the globe on Strange's desk. A single green dot was blinking in southern Argentina. Zooming in showed nothing more than an empty field. "Argentina?"

"Wong's getting the other wizards together. Then we're portaling there." Tony picked up the nano-casing from its discarded place on a side table. It was shoved onto his chest and covered his body in the Iron Man armor. Peter reached for the Iron Spider box and allowed for the nanites to coat his body.

"Stay out of the way of our work." Wong appeared from a portal into the room with only Masters Hamir and Minoru. Tony was going to say something back to him when another portal was opened in front of them. 

Peter was nervous and jittery when he stepped out of the golden ring. It was dark in the open field. His suit scanned for lifeforms but came up with nothing. He was about to ask Tony why that was when a spell went over the area. A large concrete building shimmered in the air before becoming solid in this plane of reality. Tony ordered for him to be careful even as Peter's spidey-sense was tingling. There was something very dangerous within that building.

It was radio silent between the group as Tony lead the way towards the building. He didn't bother knocking on the door before he was blasting it down. On the other side were only two men dressed in combat gear. Peter shot webs at both of their faces while Tony knocked them back with repulsor blasts. With his skin itching, Peter followed the others further into the building. He called out when someone was beyond a corner or through a door before they got close. This situation was nerve-wracking. He had never been on a recon-type mission before and with it being for Strange it had him on edge. Whatever was so dangerous in this building was below them and he had no doubt that would be where they found Strange. 

When the top three floors had been cleared with no sign of their sorcerer they finally ventured down below. Peter knew almost immediately when they were coming upon the danger. Not only were those down here prepared for them but the danger was with them. He voiced as such just as something was shot towards them. It hit a giant shield thrown up in the middle of the hall to protect them. Tony fired a blast at the person at the end of the hall with a giant gun in their hands. Another blast of something came from the gun that ripped through the shield like it was nothing. It slammed into Master Hamir behind Peter. 

Peter shot a few webs at the gun until the entire barrel was covered. Hamir was back on his feet but bleeding from a wound in his shoulder. They carried on down the hall until they came upon the door at the end. Tony opened it and they were greeted by an entire room full of people holding weapons. Peter took a glance around to find a circular glass cage in the middle of the room with a technology hub behind it. Inside was the sitting form of Doctor Strange. Looking completely relaxed and meditating with his eyes closed. 

"Doctor Strange!" Before he could stop himself he was calling out to the man. Even has a rain of fire came from the people in the front of the room with the weapons, Peter knew the man in the cage could hear him. But there wasn't even a twitch from him. 

"You get him, kid. We'll take care of these guys." Tony said, a set of small missiles coming up on his shoulders. They were fired but met with an odd shimmering shield. 

"If he is injured, do not touch him. We don't know what has happened here." With Wong's warning in mind, Peter dodged the projectiles being fired at him. He reached the cage but before he touched the glass he caught a glimpse of the large warning blaring above a half-full progress bar. Karen advised him against touching the glass unless he wished to be fried from the electricity racing through it. Instead he used a spell Strange had taught him to break it. It shattered in a perfect circle around the still man. 

Silence soon filled the room. Peter didn't get the chance to move before someone was speaking to them all. He looked away from Strange to where a woman was lying bleeding out on the tile ground. Nobody else but their group was still conscious. 

"You can't stop evolution. Technology and magic are being merged. Two worlds are becoming one finally." A single orange saber was being stabbed through the woman's chest. Minoru let the blade dissolve once the job had been done. 

"Get him, Pete." Tony was slowly picking his way across the room to study the technology in the back of the room while Wong and the other Masters went to check on the people on the ground. Peter nodded slowly; the danger was still brewing in the room. It was suffocating. His skin was crawling with the need to run even as he stepped closer to Strange. Who was still sitting cross legged on the ground with his eyes closed. 

"Doctor Strange? Are you alright? We're here to help you." He came to a stop just next to the man and couldn't bring himself to touch him. Even if he wanted to do so, he wasn't given the choice. 

A surge of magic unlike Peter had ever felt before hit him square in the chest. It sent him flying through the air and slamming against the back wall. His vision started to swim and darken; the last thing he saw was Strange getting to his feet. 

|||

Somebody was here. No, five somebodies. Just outside the building and coming closer. He tracked their movement through the building without voicing so to Roxanne. This was to be her problem; not his. He was content to meditate in his cage and follow the chaos through the building. They were wrecking havoc. It was rather interesting to listen to. 

When they reached the room he could completely feel the power that was pouring from them. While it was a lot, it would never match up to his. There was a shout from the door then the noise of his weapons being fired. The chaos had been moved into his room. It took out the scientists and warriors alike; leaving only one still alive. Roxanne. Something shattered his cage that he ignored. Roxanne was talking to them. It was nothing interesting sadly. Then she too was dead and one of the somebodies was moving closer to him. 

He sent a surge of power towards it and got to his feet. Opening his eyes, he took in the damage around him. Bodies littered the room with their blood making a small pool between them. There were three sorcerers at the front of the room, a man in armor in the back, and the one he hit with the magic was lying slumped against a wall. 

"What the fuck was that? Did you just attack Peter?" Ah, he recognized a few of these people. The great Iron Man and...and...well, maybe that was only who he could remember. He barely spared the man speaking a glance before turning to the sorcerers. They were his biggest threat at the moment. 

A golden green mist come over his wrists as he pulled a whip into existence. It felt good to be able to do magic freely again. Roxanne had been clamping down hard on his power to stop him from doing something to them. He was tired of this little experiment. Had been for some time. These people may have given him the opportunity to escape, but they were now in his way. 

"Strange. What is going on here?" One of the sorcerers asked. He merely gave her a glance before lashing out at her. His whip hit her in the chest and knocked her to the ground before he was doing the same to the others. They threw up shields and weapons of their own. He only watched them for a second then had several whips out and wrapped around their limbs. This was far too easy. 

"Okay, I'm done with this." He put the two sorcerers out of commission - not dead but definitely not awake - before turning around. Iron Man was standing behind him with missiles and repulsors aimed at him. "What the hell did they do to you? Why are you attacking us? We're only here to help you escape, Merlin." 

He didn't say anything. His eyes narrowed at the man as he started making a portal behind him. The practice of doing so without a slingring was forced upon him at some point. Then he was falling through another portal to appear behind the armor. A staff was formed and slammed into the back of the man's knees. Even with the armor he fell to his knees on the ground. He had several bands surround the armor to hold the man in place. The bands started to tighten to slowly squeeze the life out of the man. He couldn't allow for him to get in the way. 

"Alright, I'm so done." There was a fire of respulsors that got the man nowhere. Then there was a sliding down and the armor over the man's body was disappearing. It gathered in the front of the man where he couldn't see it. "Have fun getting out of this." Somehow the man got his arm free and was throwing something back at him. 

The device hit him in the center of the chest. It forced him to drop the bands as it spread along his body to encase him. He struggled against the material as the darkness and hard material forced him immobile. A green glow started from somewhere as he fought the armor. He could feel it trapping him. Holding him at the mercy of this man. He snarled against the face plate and forced his magic to search for an escape. The green spread through his body to find anything to give him an advantage. A fire burned in his soul. It ripped through his being like it had first done when he got to this place.

Pathways of green started forming behind his eyes as the fire consumed his mind. Following behind that was the brightest blue he had even seen with a golden hue running through it. Magic rolled off him and through this new prison. A green mist filled the minuscule gaps in the armor before digging deep into the coding. It forced and fought its way through everything that was thrown up in its way. Firewalls and defenses were burned through like paper. He could see it all happening in his minds eye. This fire and his energy were bending this armor to fight his will. It connected so seamlessly. The once powerful Iron Man armor was infested with magic and his to use. 

A green HUD came up before his eyes. Things streamed passed his eyes that he somehow didn't have a hard comprehending. It all flowed through him like it was merely his own energy. The darkness cleared away to allow him to see the room once again. He scanned the area to find the man once in the armor was trying to get the others awake. Only one other man was. 

He tested his movement with his fingers to find that he really did have full control of the armor. It listened to every command he gave it. The fire was gone from his soul once again and replaced by the new coolness of the technology connected to him. It wasn't just covering his body, no, this armor was part of him. It was connected to his mind and the very energy that resides in his soul. This was part of him now. The pathways of blue in his mind were running and searching everything. Looking and learning. He could feel himself spreading out through the armor. His consciousness was melding with the coding of the technology around him. 

"Stark. I hope you have a way of controlling that armor." He looked to the sorcerer getting to his feet. Both men turned to look at him. 

"Of course I do, Wong. It's my armor. FRIDAY is programmed into it." Oh, there was only him left in here. He proved as much by taking a step towards them. If he was able to do magic in this thing has yet to be determined. "Uh, FRIDAY that wasn't a command to move." 

_"That was not me, boss. I'm no longer connected to the Iron Man armor."_ The female voice that came from the watch on the dark haired man's wrist sounded in the room. He was moving closer to them. His mind was still going through all of the things this armor provided, but he was almost done learning.

"Then how the hell is it moving. Its not coded to anyone other than me. Strange shouldn't be able to work it." 

_"My apologies, but I'm not connected to armor, boss. I was kicked a few minutes ago. Something fried my coding."_ He barely came to a stop to search the armor for this coding. The tendrils of white coding floated within the left over programming. He followed the trail back to the watch where a white ball of codes resided. Somehow he could almost determine that it was living. That it was thriving and growing. Instead of bothering it, he forced himself away and back into the armor. It was a lot to get used to one high tech armor; he would need to adjust to be able to deal with anything else.

"Why the hell didn't you say something then?" This Stark was backing up towards the technology hub in the back of the room. The sorcerer was moving in the opposite direction; towards the others on the floor. He focused his attention on Stark and continued towards him. The armor was coming alive finally. A buzz was going through his mind to alert him of the power. It made a pause come to him. This was very different from dimensional magic and his own energy. It was cooling and spreading like a frost through his body. He had never had something like this be a part of him; he'd never had anything be a part of him. 

"Strange, I need you to think this through. We're your friends, I swear!" Stark came to a stop pressed against a consul. It came to life with the last program pulled up. A single question popped up in the center of the screen. One of the scientist had been doing something; going behind Roxanne's back for the safety of everyone. He had overheard the woman talking to herself while still in his cage. She was terrified of these people moving their through the building, but she more afraid of him. Of completing this. Of what he was being made into. The question blinked on the screen. 'Shut down Project MAGIC_1118? YES OR NO?' A smaller box was pulled up underneath that. 'Terminate Project MAGIC_1118? YES OR NO?' 

"I do believe he is beyond reason, Stark." The call from the sorcerer brought a snarl to his face. He was fully in control. A whining sound started coming from the armor as a repulsor on his palm came to life. It flared a bright blue in his mind. 

"Jesus! You angered him, Beyonce!" He lifted his arm and fired at the man's head. With a well timed duck the shot landed on the wall behind him. "Stop! For the love of God, Strange! We only want to help you, not get fried by my own tech." 

Instead of answering, he conjured a shield over his fist. It came out a bright green with both a blue and gold hue to it. The shield circled lazily until he brought it up to press against the man's neck. He was done with this. Stark fell against the consul and his shoulder pressed against the screen. His eyes left Stark's pale face to watch the program boxes. The man's shoulder was touching the 'YES' button on the large question. He froze in his movements. What was going to happen when the button was inevitably pressed? Pathways of green branched from the blue to search the technology around him for the answer. But he never got one. 

Stark ducked under the shield to his neck by pushing back on the screen. The button was pressed and the program disappeared; the smaller one taking its place. Fire consumed his body at the movement. His shield disappeared as the raging fire burned the pathways in his brain connecting him to the armor. It clamped down on his energy and forced it from the magic he was using. Darkness came over the armor once again. Then the fire flared out and forced his body to shut down. 

|||

Tony breathed heavily on the ground next to his armor. It had frozen the second he ducked away from the disk pressed against his throat. He scrambled back from it and came in contact with a tablet on the ground. It beeped up at him with something on the screen. Taking his chances he glanced down. On the screen was a progress bar and a large box. 'Confirmation accepted. Project MAGIC_1118 has been shut down. Weapons integration has been paused. Energy harvester and container have been shut down. All conversion programs have been paused or terminated. Control nanites have been activated. Mysterio has been put on lock down.' 

The information on the screen had Tony coming to a pause. He reread the words in the box then turned his gaze up at the frozen armor still standing in front of him. It was like it had been shut down. A sick feeling was rolling in his stomach. Getting to his feet, he moved to study to screens around him. On the one partially knocked over had a little 'Accepted' box on it along with another underneath. 'Terminate Project MAGIC_1118? YES OR NO?' He didn't like what the program was asking. With what he got from the tablet he could determine that pressing 'YES' would likely result in Strange's death. But he didn't know what would happen if he hit 'NO' instead. Instead of doing either he tried to close out of the program. It disappeared from the screen and sent every single one into darkness. 

"Stark, do you have control again?" Wong joined him in the technology hub with the other wizards behind him. Peter was in the woman's arms. He reached out to take the kid before stopping. Without the armor he couldn't quite carry the kid. From his short check on him earlier he could say that he wasn't seriously injured. At least not on the outside. But if Wong and the other wizards weren't making a fuss about the magic that hit the kid, then he probably wasn't under a magical threat.

"Uh, no, I don't. I don't think. FRIDAY? Do I have control of the armor again?" He turned his gaze from the passed out boy to the still armor. His watch lit up blue. 

_"No, sir. I am still locked out. And the armor has been shut down without my input."_ FRIDAY answered. It didn't make him feel any better. Whatever that program was it was obviously connected directly to Strange somehow. And he must have hit something in his panic that knocked the wizard out. Which he was honestly grateful for. What had happened in this building had obviously fucked with Strange's mind. To make him attack Peter then the rest of them. Not to mention how he was able to gain control of the Iron Man armor.

"Alright, thank you, baby girl." He continued to stare at the armor then down at the tablet still in his hand. If this was somehow connected to Strange then it was probably the only way to help him. It would have to come with them; and the rest of the computers if they could swing that. "Can we move all of this to the Compound or Sanctum? We can't let it get into someone elses hands."

"While I agree, Mr. Stark. We are not able to do anything to the machines. Magic is in place within them to keep use from taking them." The wizard holding Peter spoke up against his question. It had him sighing. Without his armor he couldn't destroy it and he was pretty sure with whatever magic was in place the wizards couldn't do anything either. 

"Let us get Master Strange back to the Sanctum. We can discuss what to do about this after." Tony had only met Master Hamir once, and decided he didn't like the all knowing gaze the man had. 

"Fine. Portal us out of here, Beyonce." Wong rolled his eyes but opened the portal anyway. 

Tony pushed the frozen statue through the portal into the foyer of the Sanctum. After two months of being in the building Tony could say that he had grown quite attached. It had a certain personality to it. But no matter how much he liked it, he was ready to get all of his stuff back to the Compound. Including the armor currently encasing a probably knocked out murderous wizard. 

"Put Parker in Strange's room. Strange will be going upstate for the time being." Wong ordered Minoru up the stairs before turning to Tony. Another portal was opened up into the middle of his workshop. "Keep him safe, Stark. And if he wakes up, let me know."

"Yeah, will do, Wong. You'll be the first to know. You do the same with Peter. I want to know the second the kid is awake." Tony forced the armor into the workshop then sat down on a stool as the portal closed with Wong's agreement to his request. "Right, FRIDAY, do a scan. We need to find the best way to get this off of Merlin without causing any damage." 

_"You could try calling the nanites back into their casing."_ The snark in the Irish lilt had Tony narrowing his eyes. 

"I was going to do that!" 

_"No you weren't,_ _boss."_

Tony didn't bother replying as he stood back up. He went to the armor and hesitantly tapped on the reactor in the center. The nanites started receding starting from the helmet to allow Tony to see Strange's face. It was scrunched up in a look of pain. (And it allowed him to see how long the man's hair had gotten along with beard he was sporting. It honestly wasn't a good look for the wizard.) As more of the armor disappeared the more Tony was worrying. He hadn't thought about what would happen when it stopped holding the man up. When the armor left Strange's legs he was falling for the floor. Tony swore as he leapt forward to catch the wizard. The full weight of a six-foot man was now in his arms.

He frowned and sort of just laid the man on the floor of his workshop. Not a sound left Strange at the movement. Tony sat down on the ground next to him and leaned back against his desk to watch him. The look of pain was still on his face but now Tony could see just how tense the man was. His fingers were twitching in time with a grimace that came over his face. It was clear that he was in pain because of something; what is was though, he didn't know. Tony thought back to the tablet and was up on his feet to grab it from his desk. A black screen stared up at him. He turned it on and nearly snorted at the lack of password on it. 

The same box was still on the screen. He tapped off of it and was left with a half-way full progress bar. With however long until Strange woke up - and Peter still in the Sanctum - Tony sat back at his desk to use the time to find out as much as he could from the tablet. This was probably their best bet at finding out what had happened to the man.


	4. Chapter 4

Something felt...off. In his very being, in the very make-up of his soul, something was wrong. The feeling of something missing sat heavy in his chest. It was entirely new and somewhat terror inducing. He could still feel his body, move his fingers and toes and limbs, but there was a thing that he couldn't reach or feel. Like he had been cut off from it. It was still with him but not at the same time. It was a heavy feeling in his chest and an ache in his soul. The more he pushed and reached out for it the further and further it got from him. There was a numbness coming from the missing piece. 

What had Roxanne done to him this time? He couldn't remember anything past the sticky, cold, blood of that scientist coating his hands. It made his stomach twist and churn. What had they done? What had  _ he _ done? 

With a gasping cough and a gag following straight behind, Stephen shot up. He coughed and gagged into his lap but there was nothing for him to throw up thankfully. Tears built behind his eyes that he forced down. His body shuddered and ached. A sob tried to crawl up his throat that he viciously tried to stop. They didn't get to see him breakdown; they don't get the right. This was something that nobody had the right to be privy to. Nobody had the right to see him cry and scream about another death on his hands, by his hands. Nobody had the right to watch as he destroyed his already broken hands by punching the walls. Nobody had the right. This was his. His to deal with without onlookers or scientists taking readings. 

He had only killed one man in his life and he had just been forced to kill another. Been forced to steal away another's life and futures. To break an oath he had sworn his existence by. There was blood on his hands in a way that he never wanted to happen. A deep, viscous, blood that belonged to a man that didn't deserve to die. 

Before he could stop it tears were falling from his eyes and sobs were clawing out his dry throat. He put his head in his hands and curled his legs up close to his chest. He had killed a man. And not even in self-defense this time. It was a cold-blooded murder by his own hands. Hands that healed and protected. That he could no longer stomach to look at in fear that he would see the blood that he had spilled. That shook and trembled as they dug into his hair and buried beneath the dark waves. But no matter how black his hair or blind he turned to them, they would always have the ugly stain of red on them. 

Stephen didn't know how long he sat and cried. Nobody came to collect him so he assumed it wasn't too long. Roxanne would never let him have a day to himself even if he needed it. He unlaced his fingers from his hair and dropped his hands back into his lap. His eyes opened to take in the scarred skin before he forced himself to look away. A room of white and metal greeted him. This wasn't his room or any room he had been to before. Far too high-tech. 

Monitors and screens hung from metal arms and desks and tables had devices piled on them. A few glowed and beeped. He took a moment to see what he was sitting on to find himself on a couch with a thick blanket covering him. This definitely wasn't the same building. There was a moment of hope that he might have escaped when reality came back to him. He had made no attempts to escape and if someone else had taken him it probably wasn't for good intentions. While he pondered what was going on he heard the sound of doors opening. 

His first instinct was to bring up shields but when he slammed his wrists together nothing happened. Not even a shower of sparks. A flash of panic hit him that he shoved away. He looked away from his useless hands over to where the sound had come from. A man was coming into the room. Stephen narrowed his eyes at the man before his mind caught up with the visual input. That was Tony Stark. In all his brilliant glory, with a cup of something in his hands. There was a sense of wrong in his chest at the sight. How the hell was Tony Stark here? Not to mention where 'here' was. He couldn't help his instinct to pull up any magic that just wouldn't work. 

"FRIDAY told me you were awake." Stephen followed the man's movements closely as he walked through the room. He took note of the tension in his shoulders and subtle incline towards where his suits were no doubt hidden. 

"How did I get here?" Instead of asking the several other questions he wanted to know, he started with the most pressing ones. "Where is here? How long have I been here, and how long have I been gone?" 

"One question at a time, Doc." Tony pulled up a chair next to the couch and sat down. Stephen leaned away, not wanting anyone in his personal space. The cup was held out to him. "It's just tea." He eyed it warily but accepted it anyway. The warmth it gave off helped with the ache in his hands anyway. "How're you feeling?" The question didn't feel forced but Stephen didn't believe it for a second. 

"Answer my questions, Stark." He felt like shit, the fuck was he supposed to feel? His body hurt and his mind felt like it had been through the blender. 

"Alright, fine." Tony leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Stephen barely acknowledged the hesitance in the man's voice. "You've been missing for two months and we just found you a week ago. In some old warehouse down in Argentina. I brought you to the Compound considering you were stuck in my suit." What? Why the hell would he be in the Iron Man armor? As if seeing the questions on his face, Tony sighed. 

"When we found you it was a fight. Whoever it was that had you didn't intend on letting you go." There was a struggle going on that Stephen could clearly see. Something must have happened. "We found you in a glass cell in the middle of this room." Stephen couldn't help his grimace. He hates that fucking cage. "While your wizard buddies and I took out the threats Peter was tasked with getting you out. You weren't yourself, Strange. You attacked Peter and then the rest of us." 

"What?" He doesn't remember any of that. "I would never hurt Peter." Ever, he'd die before he did something like that willingly. 

"You didn't thankfully. Just knocked him out. He woke an hour later right as rain." Tony sighed again and Stephen could see the anger and confusion growing in him. "You took out Wong and the other two wizards like it was nothing. I threw the nano-housing at you so the suit would halt your movements." There was something else in the man. Something Stephen would call fear in anyone else but not in Tony. "You somehow took over the armor, Strange. You kicked FRIDAY from the mainframe and fried her out of everything. Then you attacked me." 

"Took over the armor? I don't have any magic that could do that. And Roxanne wasn't working on any technology to do so either." Tony perked up at the name, but didn't ask about it yet. Stephen knew it was coming though. 

"I don't know how you did it, but you did. The only reason none of us are dead is because I accidentally pressed a button that shut you down." Shut him down? He wasn't a machine that could be powered on and off at will. "I'm not sure what the program was that I paused, but you stopped everything the second the button was pressed."

"Project MAGIC_1118?" Tony gave a hesitant nod. Stephen sighed and fought the urge to put his head in his hands. "That's what Roxanne titled their experiments. She started it the second they got me in that cage." He could feel a phantom burn through his body at the memories. "It must be what she used to control my magic. Did you find a tablet?"

"Control your magic? How the hell could someone make something like that?" Tony pushed back on his chair and the wheels carried him over to a desk off to the side. He grabbed a glass screen and brought it back over. "I haven't been able to determine what exactly it does. All the tests I've run have proven exactly nothing conclusive."

"When they first cornered me she injected me with something. At first I thought it was just a drug to knock me out, but it wasn't. She never told me exactly what it was, but I could guess. They needed me to combine magic and technology. They had made something that attached to my energy and forced it to bend to their will." Stephen turned on the tablet and tapped on the single import program. It was a grid with a few progress bars above it. Only three were completely filled with one only half-way. "I don't know how they did it, but they controlled my magic remotely. Whatever they wanted me to do, they could. Whatever they injected me with transferred any readings I made into something they could digitally use against me."

"Damn. That's some impressive engineering," Tony commented. It made Stephen frown and shake his head. 

"It's hardly engineering. It's mostly magic and nano-particles. Someone who knew me down to my magical signature would have been the only one who could make the magic used to do this." He'd had plenty of time to think about how and the who. There were only four people that could identify and use his signature in any capacity. Three of them he trusted with his life, even though one was dead, and the other was off the grid. "I have no doubt it was Mordo who was working with them. Or at the very least someone that had extracted certain information from him. There were several sorcerers working with the scientist there."

"Did you recognize any of them? Wong's convinced someone in your Order sold you out." Stephen looked up from the tablet to stare at Tony. 

"No. And no one in the Order knew me well enough to do anything." 

"How so? I figured out your magical footprint in, like, a minute." Stephen frowned and shifted on the couch further away from him. It shouldn't have been that easy. 

"No, you had Peter and Wong with you. You couldn't have done it yourself." 

"I almost did, Strange. With magic it shouldn't be that hard to figure it out. Your house is teeming with it." He nearly curled in on himself at the new thoughts assaulting him. It could have been anyone in the Order. All they would've had to do was get into the Sanctum and with the right spell they would have his signature. They would have had to find the spell first which was kept hidden from everyone. It was only learned and used in the most dire of circumstances. Having another sorcerer's magical signature could practically make them bow to another's will. It was what kept them singular in the vast multiverse; it's unique to them and them alone. 

"Someone must have gotten past the wards I had put up then. The Sanctum hardly let anyone inside when I became it's master." He had worked hard on those wards too. They blocked his signature from everyone considering he was a high target to enemies. "It would've had to have been an older Master. I don't let the students into the Sanctum."

"Well someone had to have gotten inside. But I can't help you with magic problems." Stark lifted his hand to point to the tablet. "But I can help with that and figuring out who had you."

"We need to unlock the files stored on here. They should have all the information needed to find out what Roxanne was really doing." Stephen forced himself to hand over the tablet even though it basically held control over him. That single piece of technology could shape the rest of his life. He fought down the panic of handing control over to someone else. Stark wouldn't force him to do anything. 

"So, this Roxanne, you know anything else about her?" The program was closed out of and several other screens popped up that Stark went through. Numbers and words flew by the screen. "I'm gonna need all I can get to find out who she really was."

"I don't know anything. She was in charge but nothing else was said while I was around. Trust me, I tried to find out everything I could at first." But they played dirty and close to their chest. Nothing was said to him that could even remotely be related to the organization or Roxanne herself. His questions and demands were met with 'obedience training', or at least that's what they called it. After the threats of a schedule and routine, he kind of gave up on asking. 

"Well that's useless." He glared at the man but didn't say anything about it. It was a stupid arguement. Instead he sipped on the tea that was going cold and watched quietly as Stark worked. An itching started under his skin that he was forgetting something. His eyes turned around the room to look for something off. 

"What'd you do with everything from the warehouse?" There were computers and weapons that shouldn't have been left behind. They could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. Stark looked up with a guilty expression. 

"We don't have it. There was some magic over it that stopped us from taking it or destroying it. We went back the day after finding you but the stuff was gone. We've been trying to track it down since," Stark said. Stephen gripped the cup tightly. Nobody should have access to that equipment or the data collected. The stuff was dangerous. 

"At least you have the tablet and program here." He stared down in his lap and sighed. That program controlled him now, he was nothing without it. Roxanne's tablet was the main source of the program so it was the only one that had access to him. Access to the thing that forced him under anyone's control. That controlled his energy and magic to allow whoever to do as they wished with him as the conduit. He was merely a chess piece. A pawn to be pushed around or a queen to wreak havoc upon the board. Depending on what the Player wished for him to be. 

"Do you know exactly what's on here? Or what'll happen if we turn the program back on?" Stark had stopped working to watch him. 

"The data they collected from my magic and the progress made on combining magic and weapons. They finished integration of the computers and magic within the first week, but the data is still on there I believe." He had little doubt on that actually. Roxanne liked to keep everything together. "I don't know what'll happen if we do that. But considering I don't remember attacking you, it's probably best to not do so."

"Can you do your magic thing? With the program off, I mean." He glanced up at Stark to find the man still watching him. The urge to pull up shields assaulted him again but nothing happened. Not even a burn from the particles embedded into his energy. 

"No. That was something that Roxanne made sure of. She made sure she was in control and only allowed me to do magic when needed." A shudder tried to crawl up his spine that he stopped. She was gone and no one else would have control of him again. They would make sure of that, right? Stark and Wong would help remove the programming and particles, right? They wouldn't just leave him like this. Would they? 

"So if we turned it on, there's a high chance of you blacking out and attacking again?" He didn't know that, but it was a possibility. 

"Look, I don't remember, Stark. The last clear thing I do remember is that scientist I-" He cut himself off. His stomach turned at the memory of the screams and blood. Bile crept up his throat that he forced down. It wouldn't do to lose his shit again, not in front of someone. "I don't know how long ago I blacked out. Or what happened during that period of time. Just don't turn it on for God's sake." 

"Alright, alright. I won't." Stark held out a hand in a defensive gesture before going back to the tablet. It was quiet for a moment. "Maybe you would be better at opening these. I've been trying for the last few days, but have got nowhere." The tablet was held back out for him. 

"I doubt I can do any better." He took the screen and found a password box. Oh, he had seen Roxanne type in her passwords enough times to know what each went to. He typed the one needed for this file before going through and putting in all the other ones he remembered. There were quite a few but eventually the entire tablet was unlocked for them. It was handed back to Stark. 

"I knew you could do it, Merlin." Stark started scanning the files and new information opened to him. Stephen set the empty cup down on a table and scratched at the beard on his face. 

"Am I allowed to get cleaned up? Ya know, shave and everything? It has been two months." He had washed up of course, but he wasn't allowed anything sharp. Stark looked up and seemed to study him for a moment. 

"Yeah, sure. FRIDAY will direct you where to go." 

|||

Tony watched Strange disappear out of the lab. The man was subdued and downtrodden compared to what Tony remembered him being. It wasn't surprising but it was sad. He rolled back to his desk and connected the tablet to the mainframe to transfer everything into a secure file. Pictures and pages flew along the screen as they were transferred. Once they were finished he pulled up the one with the earliest date. It was best to start from the beginning. 

The first file was just on all the information that the organization had on Strange. Deceased family, his friends, his routine, things like that; nothing that was useful to Tony. The next one was of the first day of Strange being in their hands. It went through the process of how he woke up and the struggle he put up when he was dragged into the Hub. Pictures accompanied the file. Strange's glaring face was clear as was the dark stain on his back. A video started playing to show what was happening in the pictures. 

Tony watched in muted horror as the robes that Strange wore started to grow damp and drops of blood dripped onto the floor. The man only lifted an eyebrow at them. Then he was turning wide eyes to a woman outside the cage with a tablet in her hands. Her fingers moved over the screen and Strange dropped to his knees, trying to curl into himself. Tony followed those blue eyes up to the glass where he found two progress bars. The video didn't end there but Tony couldn't bring himself to watch anymore. Instead he read the readings and studied the diagrams that were taken during that day. Those people were trying to make magic into a tangible thing. 

The next few files were much the same as the second. When he came upon the one for the fourth day they finally changed up what they included. He pressed play on the video. Strange and this Roxanne woman were talking while a man plugged something into a monitor. Tony watched a warning flash on the tablet screen before Strange was taking off a shoe. It was tossed at the glass only to be fried while the glass lit up orange. Interesting design but very dangerous. He watched as Roxanne moved her fingers over the tablet again and a golden film was pulled from Strange. Large mandalas that he recognized as shields started spreading along the glass cage. The next few hours of the video were the same when Tony scanned through them. 

Several of the files were on Strange's defensive magic. Tony scanned them quickly to get through them onto another section of files. These were on portals apparently. How portals were made had been explained to him by Wong once and he was thoroughly impressed. A little ring could channel so much energy that it split time and space apart to open a portal to a certain place. But in the files and videos, Tony couldn't see a ring. These scientists were using Strange to channel the energy. Using him as a conduit for enough energy to kill him if he wasn't already used to magic. Just watching the man be dropped to his knees with screams ripped from him made Tony close out of the videos. It explained how Strange had used portals when he attacked them but it made him uncomfortable. 

Then there was the information in the file about what the readings and magic was used for. Roxanne and her scientists were working on teleporting technology by using portal energy taken from Strange. It was sick to read about. They had no care about what they were doing to the man. About what they were putting him through for their experiments and technology evolution. 

Before Tony could move onto another file the doors opened. He looked up to find Strange walking in in different clothes and clean. His face was shaved with only his goatee staying and his hair was dripping water on his shoulders. It was clear he needed a haircut. Tony could see little white lines just peeking up over the shirt collar. Pulling his attention away he found Strange watching him warily. A defensive look clear on his face. 

"Lunch? I'm starving." Tony closed out of the files to hide the torture from Strange. He doubted the man wanted to see it. 

"I'm not going to say no." He got up and started for where Strange was still standing by the doors. It was quiet as they walked through the glass halls. Strange stood a step behind him but he tried not to show his building sadness at the move. Maybe he wasn't doing it to show he was submissive, but Tony had a feeling that that was the reason. That it had been beaten into him. 

When they got to the kitchen he motioned to the stools at the island. Strange sat down quietly and studied the kitchen. Tony started pulling out takeout boxes from the fridge and putting them on the island. As he was about to turn back to get forks he noticed Rogers and Natasha coming towards them. From behind. He opened his mouth to warn Strange but he was too late. The second Rogers was a couple steps behind the man, he was up like lightning. A punch was aimed at Rogers' jaw while a leg went out to sweep underneath his feet. 

"Jesus, Strange! Calm down." He came around the island to find Rogers on the ground with a bare foot pressed to his throat. Natasha was watching Strange closely with a calculating look in her eyes. Strange was in a defensive position above Rogers frozen solid. "Strange, it's just Rogers." Nobody moved. Rogers looked between him and Strange to determine if he was allowed to defend himself. Tony shook his head and held out his hands in the universal gesture of it's alright. "Stephen, we're not going to hurt you."

"Sorry." Strange deflated and stumbled back from Rogers. He sat back down on a stool and put his head in his hands. Rogers got to his feet while brushing off his clothes despite the fact there was no dust. 

"It's fine, Merlin. Rogers is fine." Tony didn't reach out to touch him and instead sat next to him. 

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Rogers came around the counter while Natasha hung back, still studying Strange. 

"Nepal." Strange didn't lift his head from his hands. Tony could see his hands trembling and his right one was already bruising. The scars stood out against the red skin. He could tell that he was hurting from that punch thrown. 

"Can I see your hand?" The man lifted his head to stare at him. A glare was clearly aimed at him. His hands were lowered to the counter but he didn't let Tony touch them. "Look, you just punched a super soldier. It's bound to hurt."

"I'll be fine." Strange turned away from him and pulled a container over to him. The tremble in his hands didn't hinder his eating thankfully. 

"What's your name?" Rogers looked over his shoulder at them from the fridge. Strange met his gaze for a moment before looking back to his food. 

"Stephen." Tony was surprised that Strange didn't introduce himself by his full title. He knew the man was proud of being a doctor and only went by Doctor Strange. Why wasn't he now? Had something happened? 

"No last name?" Natasha asked, coming around to sit on Strange's other side. The man tensed and shifted away from her. 

"It's Strange."

"Who're we to judge?" Rogers turned to the counter with a bottle of water in his hands. 

"What? No that's my last name. Stephen Strange." Tony couldn't help the snort at Rogers' apologetic face. Strange just waved off the apology that was bound to be coming and went back to his food. Natasha and Rogers stayed for another minute before disappearing back into the building. 

They didn't say anything for a long while. Tony didn't know what was appropriate to talk about and what wasn't. There was a long list of things that he shouldn't bring up. When they finished eating they were back down in the lab to continue scrubbing through the files. Well, he did while Strange fell asleep on the couch. 

The next files that he pulled up were re-runs of the same readings and data conversion. Each for a different project but gone about the same way. One that really fascinated him was the hologram technology. It was being built through illusion magic and the basic programming of BARF that he used. The devices were close to like his drones but not nearly as refined. For some reason that he couldn't find in the files why the project was pushed aside for combining weaponry. 

Tony skimmed the videos of the other projects to find that Strange hadn't spoken in any of them. For close to fourteen days he couldn't find evidence that the man had even opened his mouth. Then there was a small update in the middle of the piling files. The Mysterio project had been fully integrated and accepted by Strange willingly. He stopped looking at the technology and searched for anything relating to this 'Mysterio project'. Several files came up. The first was on the nanoparticles, the second on the magic, and the third on the combination of the two. After that the last file was on how the nanites attacked Strange's personal energy before mimicking his magic signature. They learned how his energy felt and moved to copy it and trick Strange into accepting them. 

Which he apparently did. Another part of the file went on in great detail about the merging of magical and technology in their truest forms. From one source into another. The particles converted magic energy into computer code. Somehow turning personal soul energy into something technology could assimilate and use. Those scientists were trying to rewrite Strange's entire genetic make-up. And they were successful. Tony was brought back to Strange using his armor and kicking FRIDAY out of it like it was a walk in the park. 

But the project didn't stop there. The particles could be controlled remotely from a single program - that they had - and ordered around. They allowed for whoever that had the program could make Strange do whatever they wished. Not a single thing could disrupt an order other than shutting the program down. Then the order would have to be re-put in. Strange could be forced to do anyones bidding without an inkling of knowing what he was doing. This program destroyed any semblance of free will or thought. And Strange had accepted it willingly after several weeks of being exposed to its effects. 

Tony moved those files to a separate section to come back to. He would have to figure out how to either destroy the particles or pull them from him. Just disabling them left room for them being turned back on. So he would come back to that. He pulled up the files on merging magical weapons and technical weapons. The first three were melee and took easily to the magic. Tony was surprised to find that Strange's magic was no longer the orange-gold of the sorcerers. It was a brilliant green with a golden hue. The particles had altered the make-up of his magic energy. Everything he did was green. Each weapon that he was ordered to make. It was sort of disturbing. To see something so pure being tainted in that sickening green.


End file.
